


my heart is thrilled by the still of your hand

by Argella



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Christmas AU, F/M, Modern AU, also his mind is in the gutter, gendry POV, gendry being nervous is a manifestation of my nerves over alexa liking this fic, gendry is a nervous wreck lbr, lowkey this is a drabble but i hope it's ok!!, no sexy times but uuhhhhhh it's alluded tok, this fic is very to the point im sorry !!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-18 12:02:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21760576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Argella/pseuds/Argella
Summary: When Gendry receives his Christmas present from Arya, it isn't quite what he's expecting. Cue some frayed nerves, bad takes on the situation from friends, and one gift he'll never forget.for the gendrya gift exchange prompt: a gift mix-up causes a misunderstanding
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters
Comments: 36
Kudos: 159
Collections: Gendrya Gift Exchange 2019





	my heart is thrilled by the still of your hand

**Author's Note:**

> Happy holidays everyone!! This is for alexa, aka fugascious on tumblr, the absolute queen of gendry gifsets (seriously, i have such heart eyes over them)
> 
> title is from the song No Plan by Hozier, simply because I am bad at coming up with titles

Gendry isn’t a gift giver. Growing up with a single mom struggling to make ends meet hadn’t left much money to blow on presents. Now, don’t get him wrong, his mother had tried to make the holidays of his youth special. Not much emphasis had been placed on gifts though and, as such, Gendry didn’t really see a point to them.

But this year is different.

This year, Arya had surprised him by saying that his Christmas gift was on the way. They’d never exchanged gifts before, but this year she said she couldn’t pass up something she had seen in one of those holiday catalogues. He’d panicked for about four days over what to get her in exchange before he finally came across a cool looking wolf pendant in a secondhand shop in town. It hadn’t been in the best condition, but he’d bought it anyway and cleaned it up enough that it almost looked good as new.

He had actually gotten really excited about giving it to her and seeing her reaction, but then she had told him she would be going to the Vale with her family for a Christmas ski trip, and that she would wait to open it on Christmas day.

“Your present is in the mail though,” she’d said, “so open it whenever you want, so long as you call me when you get it. I was thinking we could use it together.”

So now here he is, opened package on his lap, torn wrapping paper littering the floor of his apartment and all he feels is…disbelief.

Because his present is not at all what he expected.

Inside the package lays a shiny pair of handcuffs. Nothing else. Not even a key.

He gulps nervously, mind running wild with what this could possibly mean.

Gendry has been in love with Arya for years, he thinks everyone knows that except Arya. But now…well with this present it seems like she might know. And, if he keeps letting his mind wander, she might have some sort of feelings for him too. Still, he never would have guessed that she’d be so bold in saying so.

This could always be a gag gift of course, but what’s the punchline? Gendry’s never been arrested or accidentally handcuffed to anything.

No, she had said “I was thinking we could use it together,” he very distinctly remembers those words (mostly because he had, he’s ashamed to admit, preened over the idea). So, this has to be Arya’s forward way of telling him how she feels, right? Not wanting to completely get ahead of himself, he decides to try his best to casually bring it up in conversation. (And if in that conversation, his feelings are finally admitted and she just so happens to share those feelings, well then what’s the harm in that?)

It takes him half the day to talk himself into just sending her a message about it. After more drafts than he’s proud to admit, he settles on just starting with a greeting.

**Gendry:** Hey! How are the mountains?

But when all he receives are disjointed messages sent multiple times and a half-decipherable, staticky voicemail about bad cell service, he realizes it will have to wait until after Arya returns from her trip.

Gendry would say he’s disappointed, but his thundering heartbeat at hearing Arya’s voice over the crackle of her message tells him he probably should take the time to put some thought into what he’s going to say.

“Arya,” he breathes out, feeling only a bit ridiculous at hearing himself say the words aloud in the quiet of his empty apartment, “we’ve been friends for awhile now. And sometimes friends, they uh…they grow feelings for each other that are un-friend-like.”

Gendry groans, the sound punctuating the air louder than he’d let his words. “Un-friend-like? That’s how you’re going to tell the girl you’ve been in love with for years how you feel about her? Un-friend-like? Fuck.”

Knowing he’s not going to be able to come up with something worthwhile—not now, not with those handcuffs in his line of sight from their spot on his coffee table—he decides he could use some help. He’s known Arya for years; they’re each other’s closest friends. But there are other people that they’ve known just as long—ones that know the both of them well. A voice in the back of his head—one that’s getting louder the more he considers the idea—is telling him not to do what he’s about to do; it’s shouting at him really. Unfortunately, his fingers don’t heed that voice as they start moving across his phone screen, opening up the group chat.

\--

A loud burp echoes sharply from Gendry’s right as a hand reaches out across the small, circular table to slap harshly against the outstretched hand of the burper in a high-five.

“So,” Hot Pie starts, patting at his chest with his fist in an attempt to expel any lingering gas. Gendry cringes. “What’s so urgent that we all just had to get together immediately for some beers?”

Gendry scoffs. “Please, like you two had any pressing plans for the night.”

“How do you know I didn’t have a hot date to meet up with,” Lommy exclaims at the same time that Hot Pie says, “The new season of The Great British Baking Show just came out.”

Eyes rolling, he replies, “Like I said, no pressing plans.”

He tosses a few peanuts into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully as Hot Pie and Lommy raise their eyebrows at him in question. Washing them down with a swig of his drink, he sighs before saying, “I got my Christmas present from Arya.”

Hot Pie’s eyebrows furrow, “And?”

“It’s uh, not what I expected,” he mutters out, scratching at the back of his neck.

“What is it, some weird sex thing?” Lommy jokes, grabbing for his own drink. His hand stills around the neck of the bottle, eyes widening at Gendry’s silence and averted eyes. “Holy shit Gendry, no fucking way.”

“It’s not like that exactly…” he trails off, already regretting bringing this up to them.

Hot Pie’s mouth, which had been hanging open, snaps shut. “What was it then Gendry?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, “A pair of handcuffs.”

Lommy lets out a hoot of laughter, his hand coming down to smack the table, jostling their drinks and the bowl of peanuts. Hot Pie’s eyebrows are furrowed.

“But you’ve never been arrested.”

“Exactly,” Gendry says.

“Hot Pie, my dear boy,” Lommy begins, voice adopting a tone of faux sweetness as he wraps an arm around the other man’s shoulders. “Sometimes, when two consenting adults want to have sex, they use—”

Hot Pie throws the arm off his shoulders, clamping a hand over Lommy’s mouth. Over Lommy’s muffled words he says, “Why don’t you just ask her about it?”

“She doesn’t have cell service in the mountains,” he responds.

“So, what do you want our help for?” he asks, removing his hand from Lommy’s mouth and grimacing as he wipes it off on his pants.

Gendry worries at his lip, nervous. He, Hot Pie, and Lommy have been friends for years, but they didn’t exactly _do_ feelings. “I want to tell her how I feel. Even if…even if this doesn’t mean anything at all, I want her to know.”

“And if she doesn’t feel the same way?” Lommy quips, grunting when Hot Pie elbows him in his side.

Gendry shrugs. “Then she doesn’t. She’s still my best friend.”

Hot Pie sends him a small smile. “I wouldn’t worry about it Gendry. We’ve seen the two of you around each other. I’m sure she feels the same way.”

Gendry sends a grateful look toward him before draining the last of his beer to distract his hopeful thoughts.

Of course, Lommy, wanting to show his support, has to add, obscene eyebrow waggle and all, “He’s right. She wants you Gendry, I’m telling you, no question about it.”

\--

Christmas day had come and gone with little fanfare. Before Gendry knows it it’s the 28th—the day that Arya’s supposed to get back from the Vale. He doesn’t know how he didn’t work himself up into a nervous wreck over the last week (Hot Pie and Lommy would say that he in fact did) but now Arya’s on her way over to his apartment and Gendry feels like he might faint.

He’d cleaned up his apartment—the handcuffs had been moved to the top of his dresser; he definitely couldn’t have this conversation with her with those right in front of him—and is sitting anxiously on his couch when he hears a knock on the door.

Taking a deep breath, he gets up off the couch and opens the door to see Arya’s face grinning broadly at him. He can’t help the smile forming on his own face.

“Hey,” he greets her.

She launches at him, arms wrapping around his middle, a muffled “hey” coming out of her mouth.

He laughs as they take a step back from each other. Before he can step aside to let her in, something around her neck catches his eye.

“You’re wearing it,” he says, surprise in his tone.

Her left-hand darts up and wraps around the pendant hanging around her neck. “Of course, I love it.”

Some of Gendry’s nerves relax, glad that he at least managed to get her a present she liked. But as Arya pushes past him into his apartment, plopping down on the couch and looking at him curiously, those nerves go right back into overdrive.

“So, where’s yours?”

He shakes his head, turning to close the door before cautiously making his way over to her. “My what?”

“Your present. I want to see how it turned out.”

Gendry’s brow furrows, confusion written on his face. “You want me to go get it? Now?”

“Yeah!” she exclaims. “I wanted to call and ask about it over the phone, but my service was spotty. Maybe we can use it now that I’m here.”

Gendry chokes on his own spit, mouth hanging open as he gapes at Arya. His mind is running wild as he thinks about the implications of her words. He had thought maybe they could talk about this all first, not just jump right into it.

“Are you sure now is a good time for this? Maybe we should talk about it first?”

She cocks her head to the side. “Are you worried about safety? I know your living room is a little small but—”

“Oh my Gods,” he takes a breath, feeling perspiration forming on the back of his neck under Arya’s increasingly confused stare. “Okay,” he breathes out, pivoting on his heel to his bedroom. “I’ll be right back then.”

He barely spares the things a glance as he grabs them and heads back to the living room, hoping that not looking at them will calm the heat that’s begun to spread all over his body.

When he’s back in front of Arya, handcuffs hanging limply at his side, he finds he can’t meet her eyes. Which turns out to be fine because, when his head snaps up at her questioning, “What are those?” he finds that her eyes aren’t on him, but on the handcuffs.

“My, er, Christmas present?” he answers.

Arya looks at the handcuffs, then at him, then back at the handcuffs before a laugh bursts forth from her.

Gendry startles. “What?”

Between breathes, “That’s not your present Gendry.”

He finds himself at a loss for words. “I—”

Seeing his blatant confusion, “Those were for Jon.”

His cheeks must be crimson by now if the heat he’s feeling in them is anything to go by.

“It was a joke gift. Because it took him two tries before he passed his exam to become a Night’s Watchman.”

“Right,” he mumbles. “Of course. Just a mix-up.”

“Why did you think I would give you a pair of handcuffs? You’ve never even been arrested.”

“Yeah, I know that,” he bites out.

Arya hesitates for a minute, looking at him unsure before her eyes widen a fraction. “Oh.”

Gendry would very much like for the floor to swallow him up.

“You thought—”

“It’s not, it’s not like that,” he interrupts. “I mean, Lommy thought it might be but—”

“You told _Lommy_ that I got you handcuffs for Christmas?!”

“I mean, I didn’t know what to think!”

“You could have asked!”

“I wanted to, but you didn’t have service and…,” Arya’s glare cuts him off. He lets out a sigh. All of this is getting messed up. This is not at all how he wanted this to go. He was going to tell her how he felt first, get her reaction, _then_ bring up the gift if it all went well. At least if things had gone that way he could have saved himself some embarrassment in the process.

“Why didn’t you think it was a mix-up in the first place?” she asks, voice oddly emotionless in that way it gets when she doesn’t want people to know what she’s thinking. Usually Gendry can manage to figure it out, even if just a little bit, but he’s much too caught up in his own head to even try.

“I don’t know I just….” He stops, head pounding, eyes feeling uncharacteristically watery as his hopes come crashing down. “I just thought maybe you felt the same way about me,” he admits softly.

There’s silence between then as Gendry squeezes his eyes shut, prepared for Arya to walk out. Only instead of hearing his front door closing, he hears her voice, wavering slightly. “What way?”

He cracks his eyes open, sees hers looking at him with her own eyes wide and open and it all comes rushing out. “I love you Arya. I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember, and I think I’ll always love you. But more important than that, you’re my best friend and I don’t want that to change, I don’t think I could bear it to…so if you don’t feel the same way that’s fine, really, it is, we’ll just forget about all of this, okay?”

Arya’s lips part soundlessly, her eyelashes fluttering quickly as she blinks back at him. Despite his unease and embarrassment, Gendry firmly meets her eyes.

He falters only a little as she gets up off the couch, moves around the coffee table, and stands in front of him.

She cracks a smile that sends Gendry’s heart pounding heavily in his chest and says, “I love you too.”

His sharp exhale is cut off by Arya’s lips as her hand wraps around the back of his head, tugging him down to her height. All Gendry feels is warmth—against his lips, in his chest, everywhere—and all he can think about is the feel of her waist pressed beneath his hand. When they pull apart his head is swimming, a dopey smile on his face as he sees Arya’s shy one.

They’re both breathing loudly, giggles entering the space between them and he can’t help himself from leaning down and pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

“A replica sword.”

He pulls back, confused expression on his face as he meets Arya’s eyes, now twinkling with mirth.

“What?”

“Your actual present. I don’t want to ruin the whole surprise since it still isn’t here yet, but that’s what I thought we could use together. I know how interested you are in medieval blacksmithing, so I just thought…,” she trails off.

Gendry laughs in disbelief. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

She sends him a smirk in return, and then, “You know, Jon already thinks his present is late. I could always send him something else and he’d never know.”

It takes Gendry a minute to catch on but when he does he thinks his face is likely to catch on fire.

Gendry isn’t big on gift giving and hasn’t received many gifts in his life, but he’s never been happier to have received the wrong one.

**Author's Note:**

> also on tumblr @ ladystvrk where i stay reblogging alexa's gifsets


End file.
